Thermodynamics of the strongly interacting gluon plasma in the large-N limit

TL;DR

This study examines thermodynamic properties of SU(N) gauge theories with various N values near the deconfinement temperature, finding weak N-dependence and comparing results with holographic models and supergravity predictions, including extrapolation to infinite N.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the thermodynamics of large-N gluon plasmas and compares lattice results with holographic and supergravity models, extending understanding to the N→∞ limit.

Findings

Weak dependence of thermodynamic observables on N.

Agreement with gauge/gravity models near T_c.

Extrapolated results for N→∞ in thermodynamic quantities.

Abstract

We report on our recent study of equilibrium thermodynamic observables in SU(N) gauge theories with N=3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 colors at temperatures T in the range from 0.8 T_c to 3.4 T_c (where T_c denotes the critical deconfinement temperature). The results, which show a very weak dependence on the number of colors, are compared with gauge/gravity models of the QCD plasma, including the improved holographic QCD model proposed by Kiritsis and collaborators, and with the supergravity prediction for the entropy density deficit. Furthermore, we investigate the possibility that the trace anomaly may receive contributions proportional to T^2 at temperatures close to T_c. Finally, we present the extrapolated results for the pressure, trace anomaly, energy and entropy densities in the limit for N going to infinity.